Psychologist Wendy Ostroff explains why using dialogue in learning with elementary-age students is a win for everyone, especially for learning. Young students are inventive questioners and naturally divergent thinkers, and they are engaged and empowered by exercising their voices. Teachers will benefit from Ostroff's guidance about fitting…

This paper is a revised version of a plenary prompted by the upsurge of interest in the role of pragmatics in teaching, learning, and assessment, and has as its purpose to take a fresh look at recent developments in the assessment of target-language (TL) pragmatics in spoken language. The first issue considered is the question of whether to…

The author introduces the concept of the quantum volume into thermodynamics teaching. A new derivation of the basic part of the Sackur-Tetrode equation uses the microcanonical ensemble instead of the math-heavy canonical ensemble. Entropy diagrams, based on the binomial distribution, visualize the ratio between the quantum volume and system volume.

The central aim of the EMIC Working Group is to connect, engage, and inspire colleagues in this growing community of discourse around theoretical, technological, and methodological developments for advancing the study of embodied cognition for mathematics education. This year, our fifth at PME-NA, we also will convene on Day 3 with the WG on…

In the last two decades, game-based learning environments have evolved into powerful learning tools. With the growth and evolution in complexity of these innovations, complementary work in game-based assessment design has also begun to take shape and has generated considerable interest among a variety of education stakeholders. This is in part due…

Countless research studies have shown that employing a variety of instructional methods results in greater student engagement, higher graduation rates, and better student achievement overall (Shernoff, et al., 2003). In order to incorporate a large variety of methods into the classroom, it is important to make use of external resources to help…

Recent trends in higher education, including online learning and the flipped classroom, have led to a large increase in the creation and use of video lectures in college teaching. Although the literature suggests that video lectures can be an essential pedagogical tool in 21st-century teaching, research is still emerging regarding best practices…

Because of the lack of tools available to assess problem-solving skills, teachers often revert to more traditional instructional approaches (e.g. lecture-based, memorization) that fail to prepare learners for the complexity of dynamic work environments. To overcome this challenge, technology solutions are needed that accurately and efficiently…

In this chapter, we focus on the difficulties children face when learning place value and how current psychological theories of relational learning may be leveraged by teachers. We discuss two major psychological mechanisms known to support relational learning--statistical learning and structure mapping--and review the evidence showing how these…

This paper looks at the popularity of after-school mathematics by focusing on the Kumon and Russian School of Mathematics models. In 1954, Toru Kumon, a high school math teacher in Japan, designed a series of math worksheets to help improve the test scores of his son Takeshi, a second grader. Toru's goal was to teach Takeshi how to learn…

This paper presents an outline of our project, in which we develop an observation framework for integrating lecture and contextual learning in the field of crop cultivation. Specifically, we will use multi sensing of learners' activities in classrooms, and contextual learning in fieldwork, farm planting, and farming environments. The motivation…

The confluence of crises facing our global and local communities have challenged leadership educators to think and practice differently. This has meant shifts in how we teach, how we connect with students, and how we understand our role in making change in our institutions and communities. How can we navigate change personally and as a community?…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) have placed a special emphasis on engineering, raising engineering design to the level of scientific inquiry. Therefore, it is important for teachers to integrate engineering processes into their teaching. Students should experience engineering design in their science…

This paper describes the course outline for a three credit hour nonlaboratory course in Environmental Health Chemistry which was taught from 1981 until 2008 at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. The purpose of this paper is to share the lecture outline in the hopes that it might be useful to others who are preparing to teach…

Diffraction is an important phenomenon in physics. This paper describes using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to produce cross-sectional images of iridescent seashells. When seashell cross-sections are viewed in a SEM, regular structure is seen. Seashells are a good example of a biocomposite material and good natural objects for introducing…